Still here...

And now that the 6 yr old's in school all day, I might actually have time to post more regularly. (Well, let's amend that. How about "at all," instead...)

After the jump, some random thoughts on all kinds of things from new fall shows to kids' tv, and the shows I'm going to miss...

In no particular order...

Wow Wow With a 3 yr old still in the house, we watch a fair amount of Noggin. Nothing wrong with that. And when he found out there were new episodes of Wow Wow Wubbzy! on Nick Jr. this week, well, we had to watch. They've added a new character who's suddenly best friends with everyone. It's still early, but I can't decide if this is more like the introduction of Buffy's little sister or Scrappy Doo. (I'm leaning toward Scrappy right now. This is not a good thing.)

It's like Die Hard in a building. This week brought the season--and maybe series--finale of The Middleman, based on the comic book, which in turn was based on the original pilot script. (And here's the blog of the creator, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, complete with lists of in-jokes and references for each episode.)

I'm crazy in love with this show, but not because of big budget effects or casts of thousands populating each scene. (Good thing, that.) And it's not because it hits all the same pop culture touchstones of the last fifty years that hit my mental tickle spot. (Although it does.) No, it's because the writing is sharp and smart, and so are the characters. Loose ends or no, it would be a real shame if we didn't get to see more of Dubby and friends. (The fact that it passes the Bechdel Rule and has inspired its own--the Morales Rule--is just icing on the cake.)

Here's Johnny... The only thing more exhaustive than NBC's coverage of the Beijing Olympics was their coverage of their new fall shows. That's not a big deal--it makes perfect sense to use a platform like that to gain some awareness. But. Couldn't they have shown more than one ad for each show over and over? Oh, wait, that's right, no one's got a finished pilot yet. Sorry, my bad.

Which brings me to My Own Worst Enemy. (Tell me that title's not ripe for headlines and bad reviews.) So okay, Christian Slater plays one man with two separate and distinct personalities. Forget the rest of the premise. Christian Slater is playing two different characters. How will we tell them apart? Will he raise a different eyebrow for each? Will he do a young Nicholson voice for one and an older Nicholson for the other? And I like Christian Slater.

And please, do not make me watch Kath and Kim. That's one of those shows that follows Gene Siskel's rule that asks, "Would a film of the same cast and crew talking over lunch be more interesting than the film they made?" Based on the people involved and the clips they've been advertising--presumably the best clips, the ones most likely to draw viewers to the show--that answer almost has to be yes.

Blergh. I'll leave you with this picture, from the cover of the Sept 2004 issue of Life magazine.



That really is Tina Fey. Methinks someone has a (perfectly understandable) crush.

But despite all the VPILF talk, I'm sorry, the governor just doesn't compare to the original:



To be continued... If I don't stop now, I won't have anything to write tomorrow. And I'm going to write tomorrow. No, really...